100 OneShot Challenge Accepted
by Apprentice Writer
Summary: Yet another person taking Prin Pardus' 100 OneShot Challenge.


**AN: So, I decided to enter Prin Pardus' OneShot Challenge on a whim. I really don't care about the competeition part, I just felt like writing sometime fun, and I get to explore the pasts of my now dead TC cats more.**

**1. Injured**

Leadership was difficult. Nobody could tell Ghost any different. When she had started out, she was a optimistic young cat, simply wanting to help her family find a place where they belonged, now she was a leader. She was hardly even the same cat. I would say she was Ghost only in name, but she took a new name now, Starve. She'd thought of it when she was thinking over the rumours of the cats that lived in the forest. They changed their names every once and a while. After a big kill or something. Their leader was always given the most intimidating name. Originally, Starve has wanted to go with Slaughter. That was the type of name that would strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dared cross on of her allies. Alas, that name didn't suit her. She was a skinny little thing. With time though, cats would starve to believe that she was the spirit of Famine itself.

But even with fear under her command, Starve was having difficulty controlling her cats. The ones who had been with her from the beginning wanted special favours. They were all her siblings after all. All cats raised by their lovely mother. She didn't like that fact they felt so self-important as to demand to be treated as her equal. She was leader. They were favourites, yes, but they were also not the only cats who mattered. They needed her to rule over them. That's just how it was.

These days, there was only one cat among all of them that she even considered trusting. Her beloved brother. She had offered him a name like her's. Maybe Death or Conquest. He was her bother and he deserved a place at her side, even if he was a tom. As her mother always said, toms are only as good as their body. They should never be given leadership positions. Instead, he decided t go with the far more humble Joker. She never really understood why. That was the least intimidating name she could think of. Instead, she gave terrifying names to her other siblings. Her named them Envy and Contradiction, Contri for short.

Envy was a nasty thing. For some reason, she would never be content with the power that Starve gave to her. She was second in charge, but she wanted more. Starve knew this she-cat would someday try to take everything she had. She'd seen her talking to the other cats as if she had some great secret. Envy was an odd one. She never showed her real self. She felt to best to hide under the acts of someone else. Starve doubted this ambition belonged to anyone except for the real Envy though.

Even worse than the possible mutiny she was planning, Envy looked at Joker like he belonged to her. Starve had always held a special bond with her brother. He was the only one of her siblings to share her blood. Envy and Contri, though they were raised side by side, were simply adopted. It was suggested they were all abandoned, by Starve never believed that. The she-cat who raised them had to be her blood mother, she just had to.

The thin she-cat felt as if she had been leading her rag-tag little group of cats for almost a whole cycle of the seasons. Well, little group of cats was a bad way to describe the group. There were thirty of them in total, and to be honest, they were beginning to have trouble feeding themselves. She blamed that on her own stupidity. She shouldn't have let that many join her. But they needed numbers to drive off any cats who thought it was a smart idea to try and take territory from her little gang.

Today she had sent out a group of cats, led by Envy and Contri, to wipe out a smaller rogue group forming at the edge of their territory. Stupid things. Well, to be honest, they weren't in Starve's territory. They were outside it, but too close for her comfort. Before she knew it, they would be attacking the border and demanding that Starve's gang move. No, she couldn't do that.

"A good leader isn't always a kind leader," she muttered to herself as she curled into a ball. It seemed she wasn't alone though. She felt something warm brush against her and her eyes widened before she realized who it was and let out a soft purr. She'd told him to stop barging into her nest, but he had never listened to that. He knew that honest, she wanted him there. He was the only one left who really understood her.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean a kind leader can't be a good leader," Joker suggested as he licked between his sister' ears. A louder purr escaped her as she tried to shift closer to him without alerting him. He shook his head at her behaviour. "Those cats weren't doing anything. I checked up on them a few times, they're nomads. They probably would have left in a few moons."

"Probably," the white she-cat had to admit. "But I couldn't be certain. One of little what's her name's kits died yesterday. It wasn't getting enough food. If that group of nomids-"

"Nomads."

"Nomads hadn't been there, she probably would have survived. It's my job as leader to make the hard choices."

"And how many cats will be killed because you wanted to make sure we got enough food to feed a handful of kits? Kits will always starve. That's just how life goes," he continued to insist. This finally upset Starve enough for her to get up and push her shoulder against him, knocking him off balance and forcing him away from her.

"No kits ever died under mothers watch!" she snapped at him. He didn't look upset in the least and instead answered her in the most calming tone he could manage. Even then, she could hear a little bit of amusement in his tone. Did he real think this was funny?

"You clearly weren't paying attention. She lost all of Beauty's litter because she wanted to make sure that her fighters were strong enough to keep that Midnight tom from expanding his territory into the dump."

"That's a lie…" Starve shook her head and went to lay down again as she heard a loud yowl from outside. Ah, they must be back. She headed outside to see a gory mess. Envy was clawed horribly, but very much alive. She'd recover soon enough, but she was dragging along something else… Something… Oh!

"What happened?!" Starvation demanded to know. "Did you manage to dispose of the group by the border?"

"Yes," hissed her second, releasing the injured cat from her jaws. "But we lost most of the patrol! And Contri…"

"I see. Good work. Go and get some cobwebs. I believe there are some in my den. You can use the wild garlic patch by the Twoleg Place to make sure your wounds don't get infected. I'll take care of Contri," the leader ordered. Envy wasn't going anywhere, so she let her guard down for a minute. "Calm down, I won't hurt him. He's my brother too after all."

That seemed to confront the green eyed she-cat and she ran off to get her wounds treated. Starve went to inspect Contri's wounds and didn't like what she saw. His eyes were completely ruined, something she could tell despite the fact he was out cold. He'd never be able to fight like that. There was a good chance in she, or another gang member, put in the effort, the russet tom would survive. But he would never be able to fight or hunt. She would never want to live like that… Besides…

"Dead weight is better or dead…" she muttered, remembering what her mother had said the day a Twoleg sitting place and fallen on Snout and he lost the ability to move his back legs. Starve dealt a quick blow to the tom's throat, tearing it away easily at he didn't give any resistance. She froze in place as she finished, her whole paw and front red with his blood. She felt sick. This was the first time she had to give a mercy kill to someone she cared about.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt him!" came a shriek from behind her. While she stood froze, Envy had come back from the garlic patch. Starve had hoped to hide her interference in this matter before the she-cat got back from Twoleg Place but apparently she had been froze there for longer than she realize. She had hoped to avoid Envy's anger. Though Starve, Joker, Envy and Contri all called each other siblings, they tended to have a stronger bond to their blood relative. Envy and Contri were brother and sister by blood and slightly older than Starve and Joker. Of course she would be furious. Trying to compose herself, she felt her cocky, leader persona taking over again.

"I didn't hurt him," Starve stated. "I made sure it was quick and painless. He probably didn't feel a thing." Damn it, she hadn't meant to say probably, but she knew nothing of what dying felt like. Maybe he felt like he was in pain for hours before her finally died. She just hoped a throat clawed out what a quick and painless death. "I won't keep a cat who is too badly injured to be of worth anything. You know that, Envy. Now get some rest. I don't want to have to lose two siblings in one day."

Unknown to her, Starvation had decided her own fate that day.

Starve had never seen more blood than the day she lost her place as leader. Half the gang had to have been killed in the assault. She couldn't have known most of them favoured Envy over her. But worst of all, out of the few cats loyal to her, Joker was one of those killed. Murdered by her own claws. She hadn't realized that he was on her side. When he came to confront her, and maybe get her to flee, she struck him down like any other traitor. She probably wouldn't have been able to if he had fought back, but he didn't…

"Well, well, my dear sister," came the overly sweet and cocky voice of Envy, who was blood stained herself, but looking mostly uninjured. In fact, she had done more damage to Starve than anyone. As she heard her former second in charge speak, the white she-cat tried to step back, only for her wounded leg to cause her to shriek in pain. "I didn't realize that Joker was beyond helping. And look at you now. I wonder how bad that cut is. I beat you won't be able to fight with a wound like that."

Traitors closed in around the pretty white she-cat, who was now a cowering, ugly mess. She would be easy prey for their claws, but a flick from Envy's tail stopped their assault. "No, no, I don't think she's suffered enough. I'll keep an eye on her, but I think I'm going to let her make sure her own death is 'painless'. Now, run little kitty, before I change my mind!"

Never before had the former leader felt so helpless. She hobbled out of the camp, despite her leg's protests, finally realizing something she had never truly understood. Of use or not, every cat wanted to live. Just being injured should never been a death sentence.


End file.
